Surprising how Alfonso Cuaron had been so expressive and vocal of cinematic liberties and on how a film ought to be made, sometimes, compromising on the factual side of things! Yet, he seems to have gotten most things right.
I have put myself into watching movies recently - Interstellar and Gravity - movies I had missed upon release. These two films mean a lot more than meets the eyes of the casual observer. They are remarkable, path-breaking and revolutionary. Just the sheer importance of this film makes me write about it two and a half years after release.
This post is only about Gravity and the many discussions and debates the movie has raised since release. I wouldn't want to mention spoiler alert two years after release. However, you do good watching the movie before reading this piece, if, under very rare circumstances, you haven't!
The Plot (and Interpretations): Gravity could be the simplest and the most universal of plots you can come across. Things go wrong in space and you have to get back to earth to survive. Debris after a missile strike into a Russian satellite launch into orbit and they are going to hit everyone and everything on the way, every 90 minutes.
Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Astronaut Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) have to get back to earth, while everyone else on board on the space shuttle Explorer is dead.
It was at this point that I began to interpret the movie in different ways, vis-a-vis the many interpretations of the movie, while watching the second time. Does Dr. Ryan die here immediately after being cast out into space? Just as Kowalski arrives to save her, it seems so. That's why after the long journey toward the ISS (International Space Station), she assumes the fetal position with the umbilical cord. She has gone into another womb. On the way, she looks almost dead and quietens before she struggles to enter the Space Station. Further, her entry into the Space Station simulates the entry into the "egg".
Kowalski, as a second sperm, cannot enter the egg, as in most cases. [Somehow, from the moment they were tethered together, I got the feeling, even the first time, that George Clooney was going to do a "Space Titanic". I thought he would have to let go. I think it played as a cliche in my mind minutes before it was going to take place. I also believe that he need not have died. But it might be a good way of getting rid of his character to have a lone survivor in Sandra Bullock (a plot device).]
Dr Ryan is reborn as she goes further into the International Space Station head first, after she assumes the fetal position with the umbilical cord. Before this scene, we never see her inside a space station or much less a shuttle. After the fire accident, entering the Soyuz Capsule is entering another womb. Again, she decides to die as a fetus, when George Clooney (the sperm that goes missing voluntarily) returns briefly, as probably Dr. Ryan's father or "who-knows-who" might have had sex again with her mother.
She leaves the Soyuz (birth) and enters the Tiangong-1 (Chinese Space Station), enters another capsule/spacecraft and returns to earth. All these could mean the evolution of the soul, rebirth and the reproduction process.
Sandra Bullock: Sandra Bullock as Dr. Ryan Stone is a painfully clumsy lead character. We wish she had been trained well enough to encounter bigger challenges that were not part of her training. It looked as though she was hamming her way throughout the film. I wouldn't want to criticize a great actress so much given how difficult the role was and how well she did. Yet, even her excessive gasping was a bit or a lot irritating at times.
Wouldn't the NASA teach astronauts and engineers some Indian Yoga breathing exercises to retain and make optimum use of available oxygen? Somehow, the film is about wastage. While George Clooney tells her to breathe slowly to save oxygen, he keeps spacewalking with his jet pack minutes before, which he could save for later, though he is supposed to be testing the technology.
Knowledge of the use of breath (like pranayama) tells me how disastrous it is to breathe heavily even in our daily atmosphere like here on earth. Sandra Bullock keeps throwing out breaths in heaps like she is going to throw up, which could blind her, as a real astronaut said on the website, "Vulture". It is common knowledge how merely pouring out your breath can cause you to faint.
Breathing Heavy: Of course, she is out on space, she says she can't breathe, she is cast out into space but reducing panic levels can cause your breathe to slow down, though difficulty in breathing is understood. At least, breathing slowly can stretch the time in between breaths, which can prolong your oxygen.
I really wished Sandra Bullock better died given how clumsy she was. I wanted her to stop breathing heavy more than anything. Matthew McConaughey was a more experienced pilot/astronaut in the Interstellar and at times he breathed heavy but this breathing of Sandra Bullock wasn't like it. Did anything go wrong in regard to her breathing? Am I missing something? I would like to be corrected if wrong.
[Actually, when you are about to die, accept that you are going to die, which is actually the acceptance of the "fact" that we are all going to, eventually, die. A life impulse from inside us will spring beginning from this moment of acceptance, which will save us from anything on earth or beyond. Dr Ryan Stone ought to have done that.]
The Interpretations
It could also be said that her acceptance of death saved her, if she really were saved, according to the many interpretations of the ending. To the uninitiated, Sandra Bullock died in the Russian Soyuz before George Clooney appeared again and she dreamed the whole thing from there on. While this is one of the esoteric interpretations, a much mundane interpretation is that she truly saved herself and came back to planet earth. For some like me, she showed the rebirth and reproduction process throughout the movie.
I have put myself into watching movies recently - Interstellar and Gravity - movies I had missed upon release. These two films mean a lot more than meets the eyes of the casual observer. They are remarkable, path-breaking and revolutionary. Just the sheer importance of this film makes me write about it two and a half years after release.
This post is only about Gravity and the many discussions and debates the movie has raised since release. I wouldn't want to mention spoiler alert two years after release. However, you do good watching the movie before reading this piece, if, under very rare circumstances, you haven't!
The Plot (and Interpretations): Gravity could be the simplest and the most universal of plots you can come across. Things go wrong in space and you have to get back to earth to survive. Debris after a missile strike into a Russian satellite launch into orbit and they are going to hit everyone and everything on the way, every 90 minutes.
Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Astronaut Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) have to get back to earth, while everyone else on board on the space shuttle Explorer is dead.
It was at this point that I began to interpret the movie in different ways, vis-a-vis the many interpretations of the movie, while watching the second time. Does Dr. Ryan die here immediately after being cast out into space? Just as Kowalski arrives to save her, it seems so. That's why after the long journey toward the ISS (International Space Station), she assumes the fetal position with the umbilical cord. She has gone into another womb. On the way, she looks almost dead and quietens before she struggles to enter the Space Station. Further, her entry into the Space Station simulates the entry into the "egg".
Kowalski, as a second sperm, cannot enter the egg, as in most cases. [Somehow, from the moment they were tethered together, I got the feeling, even the first time, that George Clooney was going to do a "Space Titanic". I thought he would have to let go. I think it played as a cliche in my mind minutes before it was going to take place. I also believe that he need not have died. But it might be a good way of getting rid of his character to have a lone survivor in Sandra Bullock (a plot device).]
Dr Ryan is reborn as she goes further into the International Space Station head first, after she assumes the fetal position with the umbilical cord. Before this scene, we never see her inside a space station or much less a shuttle. After the fire accident, entering the Soyuz Capsule is entering another womb. Again, she decides to die as a fetus, when George Clooney (the sperm that goes missing voluntarily) returns briefly, as probably Dr. Ryan's father or "who-knows-who" might have had sex again with her mother.
She leaves the Soyuz (birth) and enters the Tiangong-1 (Chinese Space Station), enters another capsule/spacecraft and returns to earth. All these could mean the evolution of the soul, rebirth and the reproduction process.
Sandra Bullock: Sandra Bullock as Dr. Ryan Stone is a painfully clumsy lead character. We wish she had been trained well enough to encounter bigger challenges that were not part of her training. It looked as though she was hamming her way throughout the film. I wouldn't want to criticize a great actress so much given how difficult the role was and how well she did. Yet, even her excessive gasping was a bit or a lot irritating at times.
Wouldn't the NASA teach astronauts and engineers some Indian Yoga breathing exercises to retain and make optimum use of available oxygen? Somehow, the film is about wastage. While George Clooney tells her to breathe slowly to save oxygen, he keeps spacewalking with his jet pack minutes before, which he could save for later, though he is supposed to be testing the technology.
Knowledge of the use of breath (like pranayama) tells me how disastrous it is to breathe heavily even in our daily atmosphere like here on earth. Sandra Bullock keeps throwing out breaths in heaps like she is going to throw up, which could blind her, as a real astronaut said on the website, "Vulture". It is common knowledge how merely pouring out your breath can cause you to faint.
Breathing Heavy: Of course, she is out on space, she says she can't breathe, she is cast out into space but reducing panic levels can cause your breathe to slow down, though difficulty in breathing is understood. At least, breathing slowly can stretch the time in between breaths, which can prolong your oxygen.
I really wished Sandra Bullock better died given how clumsy she was. I wanted her to stop breathing heavy more than anything. Matthew McConaughey was a more experienced pilot/astronaut in the Interstellar and at times he breathed heavy but this breathing of Sandra Bullock wasn't like it. Did anything go wrong in regard to her breathing? Am I missing something? I would like to be corrected if wrong.
[Actually, when you are about to die, accept that you are going to die, which is actually the acceptance of the "fact" that we are all going to, eventually, die. A life impulse from inside us will spring beginning from this moment of acceptance, which will save us from anything on earth or beyond. Dr Ryan Stone ought to have done that.]
The Interpretations
It could also be said that her acceptance of death saved her, if she really were saved, according to the many interpretations of the ending. To the uninitiated, Sandra Bullock died in the Russian Soyuz before George Clooney appeared again and she dreamed the whole thing from there on. While this is one of the esoteric interpretations, a much mundane interpretation is that she truly saved herself and came back to planet earth. For some like me, she showed the rebirth and reproduction process throughout the movie.
